Hormones: Count Hormones Not Calories

Getting healthy is about measuring your hormones and not about counting calories. See, you can take someone who has been trying to lose weight and put them on a starvation diet. Exercise them in to the ground. But if their hormones are out of whack, they’re not going to lose weight. They might even gain weight. I’ve seen it happen many times. What we do know, scientifically speaking, is that weight loss has very little to do with calories and a lot more to do with how our bodies process energy – which, surprise, is controlled by our hormones.

Yes gentlemen, your hormones, too. Because hunger is a hormone. Feeling full, high energy, and low energy are all regulated by hormones. Thus, both men and women need to be concerned about their hormones.

Our hormones help us to feel balanced. They can either increase or diminish feelings of anxiety, depression, stress, etc. We’ve got to get our hormones in balance! Hormones will be out of balance, out of whack, if we’re not making the proper vitamins and minerals in our bodies.

Can you take a supplement? Sure. But, ideally, you want your body to do that for you. And it’s only going to happen if you’re absorbing properly. Hence, aches, pains – absolutely every autoimmune disease – somehow ties back to inflammation in our gut. It’s one big vicious cycle. Trying to attack it by counting calories is not going to fix your gut health. Understanding your hormones (i.e., hormonal imbalance), nutrition, and metabolism is.

One major reason we tend to have hormonal imbalances to begin with is leaky gut.

For the down-low, I’d highly suggest you take a listen to this podcast on The Chalene Show, Leaky Gut: What You Need to Know. The science is made so simple for you that no wonder this podcast was trending in health on iTunes!

Just focus on this thought: 80% of the population today has leaky gut. That’s new. It’s slowly been increasing year after year after year. And there’s so many reasons why.

Main culprit… toxins.

Think about everything that’s toxic in our environment. All the things, in different forms, we’re unknowingly exposing ourselves to. Whether we’re topically applying them to our skin or eating “healthy” foods that are genetically modified, etc.

Your body doesn’t identify these toxins as recognizable. It sees them as foreign objects.

Now think about what your body does with a foreign object on the inside. Whatever the size. It’s going to do what it can to push it out, right?

Relatable anecdote time:

The other day, I could tell there was something irritating my finger – even if I couldn’t see it. I felt it every time I brushed the tip of my finger against something. Eventually, I realized it was the teeniest tiniest shard of glass. Ouch. Again, not visible to the naked eye. So there was no point trying to pick it out. All that could be done was wait for my body to push it out. The tip of my finger soon became inflamed, red, and very swollen. Until it, finally, started to scab up. And there she was one night… finally making her appearance… that deceptively cute microscopic piece of glass. And when I woke up the next morning, she was gone.

Imagine that (rejection) happening over and over for years and years on a very low level inside your gut. That’s what’s happening to all of us.

And every year there’s more fake foods with more bizarre ingredients that make these foods taste even more delicious WHILE keeping them low cal AND extending their shelf life. And we keep eating them! Then we wonder why our face is swollen, eyes puffy, stomach bloated, joints ache, knees hurt, fingers numb, back sore, neck strained, etc. We just assume it’s us, right? Maybe something we did during training or perhaps we slept wrong or ate something funny.

As the years accumulate, our gut unable to identify these foreign objects, inflammation occurs. This is why you’re experiencing all kinds of health issues.

The point is, lifers… for years, slowly, all of this becomes our sort of new normal. It literally feels normal that we don’t feel well.

Someone said to me recently, “Should I get tested for leaky gut?”

I’m like, “You can. But that’s like asking ‘should I get tested for living a long life?’”

Why not just put the principles in place that will allow you to live a longer life? Do you really need a test to figure out if you should improve your lifestyle?

You have the power to change this. To live longer. Be healthier. Happier. But you’ve got to educate yourself. No more pointing fingers at someone. Looking for a quick fix is over. Trying every diet and/or exercise is futile. It’s going to take education.

But if I can’t help you do it, you still need to do it. And I want you to make the decision to learn about your digestive health and how to figure these things out. It is so crucial. It’s important if you want to lose weight, get healthier, and be happier.

Please, I need you to be your best. You are the bomb dot com. But let’s face it… we all have room for improvement. I love you so much.